Overview
- Three generations of a Modesto family — a grandmother, a 23-year-old mother and a two-week-old infant — were found stabbed to death in their home and a second child was discovered uninjured after police responded to a disturbance on May 28.
- Police arrested 28-year-old Joaquin Escoto hiding nearby and he is jailed without bail on three counts of murder plus special-circumstance and weapon enhancements while investigators continue to probe motive and relationships.
- The Department of Homeland Security says Escoto is an undocumented Mexican national who was deported in 2018, had multiple prior DUI arrests, and that an ICE detainer lodged after a June 2025 DUI arrest was not honored by local officials.
- The killings prompted immediate local impacts including an elementary school evacuation, Child Protective Services custody of the surviving child, and community fundraising for the victims’ family.
- The case has widened a national dispute over California’s sanctuary laws because ICE detainers request custody transfer or notification but do not automatically compel local jails to hand over people without a judicial warrant or local cooperation.